CONTENTS
Food and Language as Markers of Identity: The Anglo Indian Community’s Survival Since Partition
By Isha Doshi(Part II)
The Roots of Anglo-Indian Cultural Practices and Attitudes
By Dorothy McMenamin
Fallacies and Realities of the Anglo Indian stereotype:
Verification through ‘our’ primary source, namely Raj Days to Downunder: Voices from Anglo India to New Zealand, and
to some extent CTR chronicles By Dorothy McMenamin
Book Review: Blunt, Alison. Domicile and Diaspora: Anglo-Indian Women and the Spatial Politics of Home
By Brent Otto
EDITORIAL
A number of Anglo Indian scholars are doing path-breaking research producing or in the process of producing,
academic papers and books about Anglo Indians and the Anglo Indian experience. These researchers are from
New Zealand, England, the US and I’m sure there must be some working away in India as well.
I would be glad to get more material from India which is getting somewhat under-represented in our journal.
It is encouraging to note all this involved activity with a view to all the new material that is being steadily gathered in the repositories of Anglo-Indian scholarly works – a large part of which is contributed by the IJAIS. It continues to be gifted articles by some of our leading academics and this volume is no different.
Isha Doshi’s dissertation on the Anglo Indian cuisine and accent continues in the second part. It is fascinating to see her thesis unfold and realize that we are indeed endowed with our own way of speaking the English language. Many of us who think we speak perfectly accentless English will be surprised to hear certain intonations unique to our culture in our own voices.
Dorothy Mc Menamin has contributed two articles. She examines the reasons for the ‘stereotypes and fallacies’ that exist about Anglo Indians. She raises the point of the importance of Anglo Indian biographies and autobiographies which indeed many AI are engaged in, to build data that would help answer these various ideas and address their validity.
Dorothy, in her second article raises the question of how little is known of Anglo Indian Indian ancestry which would have come from the maternal side. She links it to the issue of class identity. The paternal line is much easier to trace but many Anglo Indians find that their maternal ancestry is shrouded in obscurity. It is indeed a hard task but it would be of great value if life histories came forth that shed some light on this area.
Brent Otto, who is doing intensive study on the subject of Anglo Indians has contributed a book review of Alison Blunt’s “Domicile and Diaspora: Anglo Indian Women and the Spatial Politics of Home”. He rightly points to the importance of its contribution to the study of ‘ethnic hybridities’ and indeed it is a very valuable part of the recent books on Anglo Indian Studies.
I invite contributions towards the journal as ever.
Susan Dhavle
susanddhavle@gmail.com